degree

This looks like a fascinating three-way battle at the top, with a longtime critics’ fave in the fourth slot, possibly earning his first nomination.

“My top three — Malkovich, Scott and Damon — seem fairly unshakable, so it’s those last two slots that are in play,” says Dave Karger, though he leaves the door open for Tom Cruise to execute the seemingly impossible mission of scoring a nom for a film projected to lose up to $250 million.

Anne Thompson says, “Damon is the frontrunner … Degree of difficulty is a factor, as it was with Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘The Revenant.’ ” Amy Nicholson, however, calls the performance “the weakest link in the movie.”

“Malkovich has never won, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he finally broke through,” says Robert Daniels.

Just outside the top three is John Turturro, who “has never been nominated,” points out Glenn Whipp, saying “Pickpocket” “gives him a rare lead film role, and he is absolutely riveting.”

1. John Malkovich, “Wild Horse Nine”
T2. Matt Damon, “The Odyssey”
T2. Andrew Scott, “Elsinore”
4. John Turturro, “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York”
5. Ryan Gosling, “Project Hail Mary”
T6. Yura Borisov, “Artificial”
T6. Tom Cruise, “Digger”
T6. Pedro Pascal, “Behemoth!”

RogerEbert.com

Robert Daniels

1. Matt Damon, “The Odyssey”
2. John Malkovich, “Wild Horse Nine”
3. Andrew Scott, “Elsinore”
4. Ryan Gosling, “Project Hail Mary”
5. John Turturro, “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York”

“Damon and Malkovich are locks for, um, somewhat different roles — though both characters are grappling with deadly pasts on journeys designed to trick their senses. Malkovich has never won, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he finally broke through. But Damon (who hasn’t won for acting) is excellent in the buzziest movie of the year.”

Turner Classic Movies

Dave Karger

1. John Malkovich, “Wild Horse Nine”
2. Andrew Scott, “Elsinore”
3. Matt Damon, “The Odyssey”
4. Pedro Pascal, “Behemoth!”
5. Anthony Ippolito, “I Play Rocky”

“Of course, Tom Cruise remains the wild card here — right now, I’d put him at No. 6, still with a shot of cracking the top five if enough of the actors branch appreciates his ambitious work. My top three — John Malkovich, Andrew Scott and Matt Damon — seem fairly unshakable, so it’s those last two slots that are in play.”

Los Angeles Times

Amy Nicholson

1. John Malkovich, “Wild Horse Nine”
2. John Turturro, “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York”
3. Andrew Scott, “Elsinore”
4. Tom Cruise, “Digger”
5. Timothée Chalamet, “Dune: Part Three”

“Matt Damon’s version of Odysseus was the weakest link in the movie. It’d be marvelous to see John Turturro or John Malkovich sneak up and swipe this statue for themselves.”

IndieWire

Anne Thompson

1. Matt Damon, “The Odyssey”
2. John Malkovich, “Wild Horse Nine”
3. Ryan Gosling, “Project Hail Mary”
4. Andrew Scott, “Elsinore”
5. John Turturro, “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York”

“Damon is the frontrunner for ‘The Odyssey.’ Degree of difficulty is a factor, as it was with Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘The Revenant.’ Damon’s challenger is 72-year-old character actor John Malkovich, who gives a career-topping performance as a jaded, dying spy in ‘Wild Horse Nine.’ Damon may be up again. Malkovich? Maybe not.”

Tribune News Service

Katie Walsh

1. John Malkovich, “Wild Horse Nine”
2. Matt Damon, “The Odyssey”
3. Andrew Scott, “Elsinore”
4. Yura Borisov, “Artificial”
5. Robert Pattinson, “Primetime”

“Matt Damon does fantastic, unshowy work in ‘The Odyssey,’ in a performance that I think is deserving of the Oscar. But as soon as I saw ‘Wild Horse Nine,’ I knew that Malkovich would win this year. I’d be shocked if he loses. Pulling for an Andrew Scott nom, too.”

Los Angeles Times

Glenn Whipp

1. Andrew Scott, “Elsinore”
2. John Malkovich, “Wild Horse Nine”
3. Matt Damon, “The Odyssey”
4. John Turturro, “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York”
5. Ryan Gosling, “Project Hail Mary”

“John Turturro has never been nominated for an Oscar. But ‘The Only Living Pickpocket in New York’ gives him a rare lead film role, and he is absolutely riveting as the weary title character fighting against time. It’s a lovely showcase.”

It was so hot at Dodger Stadium on Saturday…

How hot was it?

It was so hot a team that averaged nearly 50,000 fans for often meaningless regular-season games beat the Atlanta Braves 5-3 in its first postseason game before thousands of empty seats — some of which were literally too hot to sit in.

It was so hot the Dodgers set up pallets of bottled water near the gates and anyone brave enough to enter the stadium was given a plastic 16-ounce Dasini bottle. Gatorade also set up a cooling tent under the right-field pavilion.

It was so hot Nicolas Gonzalez, a fan sitting in the shade of the reserved level, saw a stadium attendant, overcome by heat, stretchered before the game even started. She wasn’t the only one. By the later innings, other fans on the reserved level were reportedly seeking medical attention on the concourse.

The Dodgers declined comment.

So how hot was it?

The game started 45 minutes after the National Weather Service issued an extreme heat warning, cautioning against “extremely dangerous heat conditions” as the temperature reached 100 degrees at first pitch. By the third inning, the temperature reading atop the left-field scoreboard peaked at 103 degrees, matching the highest first-pitch temperature at 64-year-old Dodger Stadium.

“I’ve been coming to games my whole life and this is easily the hottest game I’ve ever been to,” said Gonzalez, 38, of Culver City. “Having a game in these conditions feels like we’re flying too close to the sun, both literally and figuratively.”

A fan tries to stay cool during Game 1 of the NLDS between the Dodgers and Atlanta Braves at Dodger Stadium on Saturday.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Around him, fans tried to cool themselves by waving makeshift fans. It didn’t work.

But the weather didn’t just effect the way the game was watched. It effected the way it was played, too. The cloudless skies made every pop-up an adventure and the warm, dense air reduced drag, allowing batted balls to travel further. As a result, the teams combined for five homers, accounting for all eight runs.

“That’s probably one of the hottest games that we’ve ever had here. And so shout out to the Dodger fans; they were amazing,” said Max Muncy, who hit of those five homers.

“My feet were hot. Really hot.”

The Dodgers wound up with an early afternoon game in the middle of a historic heat wave because MLB and the TV networks — in this case Fox and TBS — set conditional start times for the four Division Series games before the teams and matchups were known. When the San Diego Padres eliminated the Chicago Cubs in the wild-card round, Saturday’s early NL game went to the Dodgers.

Left-hander Tarik Skubal, who gave up just a run on two hits in six innings to get the win in his Dodger postseason debut, said he didn’t really notice the heat until he came out of the game.

“I walked back into the dugout, and I asked — I forget who, I think it was [Blake] Snell — I was like, ‘has it been this hot all game?’ It’s amazing what your brain can do in certain circumstances and moments,” he said.

“I actually didn’t think it was horrible when I was pitching.”

But then Skubal pitched in much hotter conditions as a kid growing up in northern Arizona.

“I played a Little League game in 127 [degrees]. Lake Havasu,” he said. “[Saturday’s] up there with as hot a baseball game that you can play in.

“Every team’s playing in it, right? They’re playing in the same conditions we are. It shouldn’t really impact how you are mentally or how it’s going to impact how you pitch. Just go out there and play baseball and try to drink water. That’s really it.”

At least Skubal got to drink his water in the relative cool of the dugout between innings. Umpire Roberto Ortiz, wearing 10 pounds of protective gear and a black-and-gray uniform, got no such relief. He had to stand behind the plate for 2 hours 44 minutes and all 290 pitches, one of which smoked him in the seventh inning.

That’s why his five fellow umpires made a point of patting him on the back or shoulder before jogging to their positions for the first pitch.

“He stayed tough,” Dodger catcher Will Smith said of Ortiz. “I’m sure he’ll rehydrate and be ready for tomorrow.”

Speaking of tomorrow, the Dodgers, Braves and the umpires will all get some relief for Game 2. At first pitch Sunday afternoon the Weather Channel is forecasting a temperature of just 97 degrees.

“The dark silver lining,” Gonzalez, the heat-weary fan said in a nod to global warming, “is this might be the coolest October of the rest of our lives.”